Tech

Steve Jobs Once Threatened to Sue Palm Over Employee Poaching

Steve Jobs once threatened its then-competitor Palm with a patent lawsuit if the company's CEO didn't stop poaching Apple employees, according to a newly surfaced court filing.

The filing, which was made public on Tuesday, detailed how Jobs once proposed an agreement for Apple and Palm to not hire away each other's employees, and if terms weren't met, he would file a patent lawsuit.

The filing was brought on by five workers against Apple, Google, Intel and others for an alleged conspiracy to remove the competition's employees, according to a Reuters report.

"In 2007, I received a call from Steve Jobs, the Chief Executive Officer of Apple," former Palm CEO Edward Colligan said in a sworn statement. "In the months before the call, several employees had moved between the two companies. On the call, Mr. Jobs expressed concern about employees being hired away from Apple by Palm."

"As a solution, Mr. Jobs proposed an arrangement between Palm and Apple by which neither company would hire the other's employees, including high tech employees," he continued. "Mr. Jobs also suggested that if Palm did not agree to such an arrangement, Palm could face lawsuits alleging infringements of Apple's many patents."

Colligan said he "did not agree to Mr. Jobs's proposal" and instead, responded with an email, calling it "wrong" and "illegal."

"Your proposal that we agree that neither company will hire the other's employees, regardless of the individual's desires, is not only wrong, it is likely illegal," wrote Colligan, as shown in the filing. "I know it's difficult when a respected employee decides to leave the company for a new challenge, but, as you said in our call, 'This is America.' We can't dictate where someone will work, nor should we try."

He also said Palm could also respond with a patent legal action if Jobs were to proceed.

But Jobs' response, also revealed in the filing, showed he wasn't worried about the counter-threat: "We are not concerned about them at all. My advice to you is to take a look at our patent portfolio before you make a decision."

He also responded to other points: "It is not just a matter of our employees deciding they want to join Palm," Jobs wrote. "They are being actively recruited using knowledge supplied by [employees], with [one] personally participating in the recruiting process. We must do whatever we can to stop this. I'm sure you realize the asymmetry in the financial resources of our respective companies when you say: 'We will both just end up paying a lot of lawyers a lot of money.'"

Although the documents were previously kept private, California U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh rejected parts of the continued request from the tech companies during an ongoing civil case, which is why these details have now surfaced.

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